Mobile EKG startup walks away from Google for Entrepreneurs demo day with $100K

Google for Entrepreneurs live streamed its first demo day on Google Plus today, where 10 startups from seven cities were selected to pitch their companies to a room of investors and a panel of investor judges. All 10 companies included in the lineup, including one medical device company, walked away with a $100,000 investment from AOL founder Steve Case, who was one of the judges.

Dr. Susan Eagle, a cardiac anesthesiologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said there’s currently no quick way for clinicians or emergency responders to transfer EKG data to cardiologists in real time. This is necessary when, for example, someone is having a heart attack and arrives to an urgent care clinic in a remote area with no easy access to a cardiologist. Or it could be used so a cardiologist can be more prepared for when a heart attack patient arrives via ambulance.

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“Right now, in this technology void, they have to use faxes, scanners or cell phone cameras to transmit your time-sensitive cardiac data,” Eagle said in the pitch. Those are unsuitable for diagnosis and in some cases a violation of HIPAA laws.

She teamed up with Franz Baudenbacher, a biomedical engineering professor, and entrepreneur Josh Nichols to come up with a better way. The device portion of the technology is a small, portable, EKG monitor that transmits data to a tablet or smartphone through a Bluetooth connection. A technician can take a sample of that data, upload it to the cloud and make it available to a cardiologist anywhere in the country, who could provide feedback on the patient’s status.

While participating in the Jumpstart Foundry program last year, the company developed a prototype, filed for patents and completed a pilot study at Vanderbilt, Nichols said. Now its looking to follow up a $400,000 seed round with a Series A that will carry it through FDA clearance and into pilot studies, he said.

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By Deanna Pogorelc MedCity News

Deanna Pogorelc is a Cleveland-based reporter who writes obsessively about life science startups across the country, looking to technology transfer offices, startup incubators and investment funds to see what’s next in healthcare. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ball State University and previously covered business and education for a northeast Indiana newspaper.More posts by Author

About ATA

The American Telemedicine Association is the leading international resource and advocate promoting the use of advanced remote medical technologies. ATA and its diverse membership work to fully integrate telemedicine into transformed healthcare systems to improve quality, equity and affordability of healthcare throughout the world. Learn more about ATA at AmericanTelemed.org.